currently reading: titus groan

Totally fascinating.  Written by Mervyn Peake who was himself quite fascinating: a brilliant writer and artist who died prematurely of Parkinson’s disease, with many ideas yet to be reduced to written form.  So far the book is…

tools of the trade

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mclaren vale

currently reading: slaughterhouse five

So far so good.  I’ve read The Sirens of Titan and Mother Night which I very much enjoyed, and this seems equally good.

swine flu in adelaide

One of the “highlights” of Adelaide’s CBD are the bronze pigs on Rundle Mall (often the subject of late night, beer fuelled photos of people riding them). Some inspired person has seen fit to protect us (or them)…

i want one

The diametric opposite of a non-tactile iphone: the SparkFun Electronics “portable rotary phone“:

It’s actually a mobile phone – you just stick a sim card into it and you’re set.  It even supports international roaming and has 5…

more on the grapes of wrath

I came across this amazing photo of a dust storm hitting a town in Texas during the Dust Bowl, the cataclysmic climate event which caused a huge migration of people out of farming areas of the U.S. and Canada in…

why you shouldn’t use google chrome

You may have heard of Google Chrome, Google’s attempt to take on Internet Explorer and Firefox by releasing a stand alone web browser (no doubt part of Google’s secret plan to gradually take over the world).  As with…

free single from new dylan album

A track from Dylan’s new album Together Through Life, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”, is currently available from bobdylan.com.

You will be shocked to learn that I really like it.  It has a nice bass groove, great, free roaming…

amazing photo of obama inauguration

This picture is incredible – I haven’t done the maths to work out if it’s actually the claimed “1474 megapixels”, but it’s a highly detailed panoramic photo of the Obama inauguration. You can zoom from the whole scene in close…

Яolcats, a fusion of felines, 20th century russian history and hilarity

“Commissar Markov has long been a loyal party member, but I fear his growing influence in state policy. Perhaps it is time to cash in a favor from my friends at the Kremlin.”

More Яolcats here.…

currently reading: the grapes of wrath

Rather ponderously paced, but an interesting insight into the drastic effect the corporatisation of farming had in the U.S. The theme of vast, anonymous commercial organisations arbitrarily destroying productive industries and lives certainly resonates in 2009.

album review – gomez – a new tide

A review of the new Gomez album, A New Tide by yours truly is up over at Rabbit Hole Urban Music.

Executive summary: I like it, but I miss the Good Old Days™.

Right this way if you’d like to…

listen to (and watch) new art brut

You may recall this rambling post about the new Art Brut album – if you have any interest, you can hear one of the new tracks here. They still have the signature Art Brut sound, although the production…

screwing your customers just makes sense

I thought this was an interesting little article about the present state of the music industry and where it’s heading.

In summary, the big labels know that people paying $30/album and $2/track for recorded music is not going to…